| Last Updated: Jul 19, 2013 - 12:00 PM |
Irish Independent
TAOISEACH Enda Kenny says the State's justice authorities are right to take their time in pursuing prosecutions against bankers.
Mr Kenny said people were angry and frustrated about the lack of cases in court to date, before adding: "It's absolutely critical that they get it right."
The Taoiseach also said he wanted the planned banking inquiry to cover the last 10 years.
Mr Kenny said the public were "frustrated" with the delay in prosecutions, but he wasn't being critical of the handling of the process by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
"I think there is always a wariness about rushing into something here. If you make a wrong statement, a wrong comment, prejudice a case and whatever else, and particularly cases like this, where they are very technical and very complex, it's absolutely critical that they get it right," he said.GOVERNMENT spending and debt levels both jumped in the first months of 2013 to levels well in excess of annual troika targets.
If these figures are not reduced over the rest of the year, Ireland will have failed to meet the targets required by the EU and IMF, in the same year that it attempts to leave the bailout programme.
The State spent ?5.84bn more than it earned between January and March, hit by payments related to the liquidation of bad bank IBRC as well as interest paid out on the country's loans.
This resulted in a quarterly budget deficit amounting to 13.8pc of gross domestic product (GDP). The troika requires Ireland to reduce this to 7.4pc over the whole of 2013.
Dell postponed a shareholder vote on CEO Michael Dell's $24.4bn (?18.6bn) buyout offer, after he won 11th-hour backing from several large investors but still fell short of enough votes to seal the deal.
The meeting was called yesterday and then adjourned minutes later, after shareholders gathered at Dell's headquarters in Texas.
Postponement of the vote until Wednesday buys time for Dell, the company's co-founder and chief executive, to win over naysayers for a deal that could be the largest buyout since the financial crisis.
Complicating matters, billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who has amassed an 8.7pc stake in Dell, is leading a charge with major shareholder Southeastern Asset Management against the buyout with an offer of his own. He and others say Michael Dell's deal undervalues the world's No. 3 personal computer maker.
DRUG manufacturer Eli Lilly, which employs more than 700 people in Ireland, will freeze workers' pay next year.
The company is attempting to save $400m (?306m) over the next two years as patents expire on some of its most important drugs and generic competition hurts its sales.
The pay freeze will affect most of the company's 38,000 workers around the world, including executives.
Bonuses based on 2014 performance will also be reduced. Employees will only become eligible for pay increases in 2015.
''This action is necessary to withstand the impact of upcoming patent expirations and to support the launch of our large phase III pipeline,'' chief executive officer John Lechleiter told employees.
Irish Times
Ireland?s national debt rose by ?18.5 billion in 2012 to a record ?137.6 billion, according to figures published yesterday by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).
The bill for servicing Ireland?s national debt also rose by just under ?1.1 billion to ?6.5 billion last year.
The biggest component in the increase in our national debt last year was ?14.9 billion borrowed to fund the exchequer deficit. This was used to pay the day-to-day bills of the State.
There was also a ?3 billion instalment relating to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation?s promissory note. This is no longer payable following an agreement this year with the EU.
The family of bankrupt businessman Se?n Quinn intend to sue the Department of Finance and the Central Bank over alleged conspiring with Anglo Irish Bank in advancing ?2.34 billion unlawful loans to Quinn companies.
The move means the actions of the regulators relating to the loans will now be subject to scrutiny by the courts.
Patricia Quinn and her five children yesterday withdrew their application to join the Department and Central Bank, in their capacity as regulators, as co-defendants in their action against Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo, denying liability for the loans.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly was told the Quinns will now issue separate proceedings against the Department and Central Bank and will apply to the Commercial Court to have that case fast-tracked.
An Anglo Irish Bank report on the huge stake built up in it by Se?n Quinn claims the financial regulator was told by Anglo in September 2007 about that stake, was regularly updated on the bank?s efforts during 2008 to dilute it and had put pressure on the bank to do so.
The January 2009 report, referred to as the ?O?Connor Report? and written by former Anglo executive Pat Whelan, also describes as ?an error of judgment? a decision by some within the bank to alter recourse provisions on loans made to 10 of the bank?s best customers (the Maple Ten) as part of Anglo?s efforts to dilute Mr Quinn?s contract for difference positions in Anglo.
The report is among various documents relied on by the Quinn family to support their claims the regulatory authorities were aware Anglo was advancing unlawful loans to Quinn companies from late 2007 to prop up its share price.
It refers regularly to advancing ?working capital facilities? to Mr Quinn.
International distribution and business support services group DCC said trading was ahead of expectations in the first quarter, giving the firm a strong start to its financial year.
The company increased its guidance for the year to March 31st 2014, estimating operating profit would grow 15 per cent year on year, up from previous estimates of 10 to 12 per cent.
In an interim management statement this morning, DCC said its energy division, the largest in the group, had traded ?significantly ahead? of last year, as colder weather and acquisitions combined with organic volume growth to lift DCC Energy. Revenue at DCC Sercom was also outperforming year-ago figures as strong sales growth in IT and communications products continued.
Irish Examiner
The Government has paid a firm of consultants almost ?570,000 to date for advice on the awarding of the new National Lottery licence.
The sale of the licence is expected to generate between ?300m and ?400m in revenue for the State.
In a written D?il reply, Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin confirmed Davy Corporate Finance has received ?568,875 for providing financial and commercial advice in relation to the award.
It has emerged in response to parliamentary questions from Labour?s Kevin Humphreys that safety deposit boxes sitting in the former Anglo Irish vaults have yet to be claimed.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan said they were working to try and establish to whom the boxes belonged.
?I have been advised by the special liquidators that there were 24 safety deposit boxes in use when the special liquidators were appointed to IBRC. The special liquidators are currently reconciling the safety deposit boxes to determine ownership.?
The special liquidator, KPMG, declined to comment on the safety deposit boxes or what it was doing to track down the rightful owners.?
Europe
Presseurop: Every politician should read Hegel's two-century-old "The Phenomenology of Spirit" to understand the euro crisis. He wrote that prosperity is not the answer to everything, and that citizens also seek recognition in democracy, according to a Dutch journalist.
Sebastien Valkenberg, who is a philosopher and freelance journalist and in the Dutch daily Trouw he writes: Probably no book has been so frequently accused of being unreadable. Nevertheless, The Phenomenology of Spirit by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) has just been translated into Dutch.
Although a hard read, this classic of philosophy (published in 1807) can help us understand the ongoing euro crisis. The book suggests that politicians will always fail while they continue to think of the crisis as an exclusively economic problem.
The reaction of Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, to Britain's plan to hold a referendum about its EU membership is illustrative in this respect. A bad plan, according to Schulz. "Cameron's Europe ? la carte is not an option. We must focus on jobs and growth, not on endless discussions about European treaties."
The EU as the bringer of prosperity. It is a view which is broadly shared among policymakers, in the Netherlands by social leaders like Prime Minister [Mark] Rutte, but also by the chairman of business organisation VNO-NCW, Bernard Wientjes. "Two-thirds of the Netherlands' exports go to Europe," he recently told news station BNR Nieuwsradio. "A million and a half jobs depend on Europe. We earn ?180bn because of Europe. Europe and the euro are the backbone of the Dutch economy."
Euro Topics: Shortly before his visit to Athens today, Thursday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Sch?uble expressed his approval of Greece's economic development. But in the eyes of the commentators, he is only trying to calm his fellow Germans in the run-up to the federal elections this autumn, after which further billions will be heading for the Greek capital.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Sch?uble's purportedly conciliatory visit to Greece is deceptive, because the real trench warfare over the euro crisis is yet to come, the left-liberal German daily S?ddeutsche Zeitung warns: "From September on, fundamental repair work needs to be carried out on the monetary union, and the North will have to supply billions of euros to patch it together. Straight after the German parliamentary elections Eurozone politicians will have to make a decision on Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Slovenia. ? Greece remains the largest source of danger in the Eurozone. Normally in September, but because of the federal elections a couple of weeks later, the euro countries will have to fork out a few billion euros extra to persuade the IMF to jump on board and help out. And the big count-up will come at the very latest in April 2014. What happens after that is pure speculation. ... But we can already say with a certain degree of certainty that the single currency will only survive if the next German government makes further concessions. And not just financial ones but fundamental ones too."
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary threatened on Wednesday to axe flights to Brussels South Charleroi airport if the Wallonian region went ahead with plans to raise taxes by three euros per air traveller as announced. Threats and blackmail have become O'Leary's trademark, criticises the left-liberal Belgian daily De Morgen: "He throws his weight about every time an airport announces a rate increase or plans to reduce its support of Ryanair. Then he leaves, or at least threatens to leave. O'Leary is the prototype of the businessman who'd rather not pay any taxes at all but is more than happy to cash in on state subsidies. ... Ironically this strategy works in the increasingly global and more united Europe. Because the various regions compete with one another. One passenger less for Charleroi is one more for Maastricht. By using blackmail to play the (local) governments off against one another, he has won all his battles so far."
Locking a sculpture of former dictator Francisco Franco in a refrigerator is art, not a crime, a court in Madrid ruled on Wednesday, rejecting a lawsuit brought by the Franco Foundation against the sculptor Eugenio Merino, who presented his work 'Always Franco' at the Arco art exhibition in 2012. Such a lawsuit would never have been brought in other countries, the left-liberal Spanish daily El Pa?s observes: "Unlike in authoritarian regimes like Franco's, where there were no freedoms, freedom of expression is a fundamental right in democracy. It's difficult to imagine the existence of an Adolf Hitler Foundation in Germany that would dare to sue a work of art for questioning National Socialism. But in Spain Francoism hasn't yet been assessed by history as National Socialism has in Germany. And this is why his heirs have been bold enough to try and sue the artist."
German rapper Bushido's new song "Stress ohne Grund" ("Aggro without a cause") will be restricted to adult sales only as of next Monday, after the German Review Board for Media Harmful to Young Persons ruled that it incites violence and discriminates against women and homosexuals. This is a hopeless step in the Internet era, comments the Christian-conservative Austrian daily Salzburger Nachrichten: "Sexism and glorification of violence are admittedly a stylistic device in Bushido's branch of gangsta rap. ... But as the lives of many a Hip-hop star attest ... sometimes fantasy and reality cannot be separated. Young consumers can hardly be expected to distinguish between affected posing and actual threats. The decision of the authorities is certainly justified but it belongs to another age: 1.2 million users watched the video online on the first day of its release. What can a ban on music sales to young people achieve when this audience seldom buys music at all any more, but consumes it over countless new online channels?"
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